The crone continued. “You crave a real adventure. A purpose. Are desperate for love. A family. Children…”
The very suggestion he was desperate peeved him. “Like fuck I am.” He snorted as he rose. He shouldn’t have wasted time with the charlatan who did petty magic tricks to try and seem real.
“You can’t lie to the bones,” the fortune teller replied.
Cam wanted to refute her accusation. How dare she accuse him of not telling the truth?
Except he did lie and had been for a while. On the surface, what did he have to complain about? He’d gone from being one of the Emerald Kingdom’s most wanted to advisor to a king, living in a palace with delicious meals any time of day and a bed with the softest of sheets. He had a purpose as the lead hunter, keeping the city of Eden safe from the shit that liked to crawl out of the swamp. With everything he’d ever wanted now in his grasp, why did he feel incomplete?
“What else is there for me? I’m needed here.” Another lie. He was easily replaced.
“You are needed more urgently elsewhere.”
“Elsewhere?” He frowned. “You mean leave Eden?” Definitely doable. The Marshlands were extensive. And he’d been pondering leaving for a while. He needed a change.
“You will travel farther than you’ve ever travelled before, to the northwest reaches and the lands that have been forgotten.”
“Hold up.” He shook his head. “You’re talking about the Diamond Kingdom. Even I’m not stupid enough to agree to go there. It’s a death sentence.” People who entered the Diamond Kingdom didn’t return. Some claimed the very air was poisoned. Others that there were monsters. Either way, it was not a place anyone chose to visit, and no one had exited it in a long, long time.
“Let’s not be melodramatic. We both know it might cause death to most, but you are not like most people, Camden.”
There she went again, using a name he never heard anymore. A name she shouldn’t have known. He’d left it behind when he and his sister, Casey, escaped the Enclave’s grip.
“I can’t leave. I have responsibilities here. My sister needs me.” Another lie. He was on a roll today. Casey didn’t need him anymore. Not now that she had her king. Even in his head that sounded whiny and pathetic.
“You can’t defy the fates,” the seer barked. Her head tilted back, and the air turned downright frigid. The voice that emerged from her stiff lips had a deepness to it, a resonance that brushed coldly against his skin. “From the land of melted ice, the toxin shall spread, sowing death and an end to the living. He of no father shall journey to the heart and do battle. But to prevail he must relinquish himself to the fury of the ice.”
“I don’t relinquish,” he muttered, feeling a need to say something to break the strange spell this crone had on him.
“If you don’t cede, then all of Ozz will die.”
The wind that suddenly slammed through the marketplace had him shielding his eyes. Merchants shouted, their panic sharp as they worried about their wares. More shrieks came from citizens as they took cover from the sudden storm.
When it subsided, Cam glanced over to check on the crone, only to do a double take. Her seat was empty. He leaned over the table to glance behind it, but she and her bones were gone as if she’d never existed. Yet her strange words repeated themselves, especially the last line. If you don’t cede, then Ozz will die.
If taken literally, then he was expected to sacrifice himself for the greater good. How the fuck was that supposed to fix anything?
He glared at the empty chair. Had there even been a woman here at all? Or was someone messing with his mind? He glanced around, looking to see if anyone paid him attention. The merchants were still sorting their wares, and citizens talked in excited clusters about the freak wind.
Nothing he could hit or kill. He didn’t get a hint of anything suspicious. Disappointing. He needed a drink. But something good, not the piss in the taverns. He knew just the place.
He headed to the castle. How nonchalantly that thought now came to him. Exiting the marketplace, he couldn’t help but ruminate on how his life had changed. Not too long ago, he’d lived in a cramped hangar that was partially buried underground with close to fifty people crammed inside. That was when they lived in the Emerald Kingdom and held the title of Wasteland Rats, among other things. Personally, he preferred marauder. It had a more dangerous ring.
Those fifty odd rats, who wanted to live outside Enclave rules, ended up living in Haven, a place governed by a guy named Axel. A good, honest fellow who’d helped save so many. Casey and Cam met Axel because of Benny, the man who’d found the two orphans in the Wasteland and took them in to raise. Which proved to be a harder task than expected since Cam and his sister didn’t trust easily. But over time, that changed. Especially once they met Axel and the others that formed Haven. It helped to find out they had a common purpose—namely survival and doing whatever they could to harass the Enclave that hunted them.
It was a good few years, even if they had some hard times, like when they lost someone they knew to the reality that was new Earth. Only the strongest survived.
That was especially important in the Emerald Kingdom where the land fought the living every inch of the way. Not so much in Sapphire or the Marshlands.
Here in the city of Eden, the people enjoyed a level of safety he could have never imagined. Walls rose more than twenty feet high to keep the predators out. Soldiers patrolled the streets. People obeyed laws that were tough but fair, rules created by a self-proclaimed king.
Most of the time if someone decided to give themselves a rank, they’d be ridiculed or killed. Only the Enclave was supposed to elevate the worthy.
Roark told the Enclave to fuck off and gave himself a crown. Those that followed him cheered, and those numbers just kept increasing. The citizens idolized their king and with good reason. Roark didn’t just spit in the face of the Enclave. He took care of his people. One only had to look around at the city he’d founded. Once a place of ruins with buildings long tumbled and the streets overgrown, Roark took a decaying remnant of their past back from the swamp. Even provided the means to rebuild.
Cam admired the accomplishment and, in the same measure, wanted to escape it. Yes, it was a form of paradise with everything he thought he wanted except one thing.
Eden didn’t need him.
No one did.
I’m all alone.
The pathetic nature of his own thoughts almost had him slapping himself. The woe-is-me party had to stop. Especially since it only proved his sister right. Her voice pitying when she’d said, “I want to live my own life. And it’s time you started yours.”
At times he wanted to scream and rage. The very fact she was right, and he didn’t want to accept it, only confirmed they required separation. No more sharing a house or a room. They now embarked on missions with other people, no more being a team.
It should have been enough.
Problem was, even though Cam didn’t see Casey every day anymore, he was still in the same city. Hearing her name. Aware she was somewhere nearby, meaning he fought the urge to check on her.
It was a hard habit to break. Cam had been taking care of Casey for as long as he could remember. When they were little and the people in the white coats would come and run their tests, he’d always volunteered first to try and spare her. When they escaped, he’d had to quickly learn how to fight the very land itself, not just the perils that tried to kill them but the chill at night that required them huddling for warmth.